Jamie Ness Fund-Raiser: That's What Friends Are For

Philosopher Albert Camus once wrote a novel called The Fall. It was not about painting houses and falling off ladders.

My grandfather was painting his house once and the scaffolding fell. He landed on his heels and shattered both. Excruciating pain and six months in recovery.

I painted apartments for four years and did a measure of exterior work. Even though I do not consider myself afraid of heights, I did always respect them when up on ladders.

When I heard details of Jamie Ness' fall it caused my stomach to churn. If you read on you'll see details from his Go Fund Me page.

* * * *
Musician Jamie Ness, a lifelong Duluthian, has generously donated his time to support good causes over the years including performing at the Duluth Dylan Fest. I'm confident there will be a strong showing of support at Saturday's fund-raiser at The Rex at Fitger's. In fact, when I see the lineup of performers I am a little concerned about there being enough room for everyone.

What Happened: The Big Fall

October 3rd, after 20 years of working as a house painter, Jamie had a fall from the top of a twenty-foot ladder. As the feet of the ladder suddenly slid away from the wall, Jamie instinctively grabbed a large air vent suspended from the ceiling. A huge section of the vent came down with Jamie and the ladder.

As the EMTs were taking him to the ambulance, Jamie was worried about the cost of the ambulance ride, the damage to his client’s property and trying to give his helper instructions on how to clean up the paint and blood.

The impact of Jamie's face coming down onto the ladder from that height split his upper lip straight through. He had a broken maxilla (upper jaw bone) and teeth that were loose and shoved out of position. Facial surgeries will need to be done in stages because his bone is too unstable and requires grafts. So far Jamie has had two of his front teeth removed and his other teeth were wired together. In addition to many contusions, Jamie has multiple complex fractures in his foot and is on his second of three or more casts. He is getting around on crutches.

The Appeal

Jamie Ness with the band.

Please join Jamie's friends and family in support of his recovery from a traumatic ladder fall that resulted in nearly $30,000 of medical and dental bills. He has been unable to paint since the accident and he could use our help. A Pizza Buffet, Silent Auction, and Music are planned from 4-8 PM at the Rex at Fitger’s. Suggested donation is $20.

They now have nearly $12,000 of silent auction items up for grabs at the event, donated by local businesses and artists.

Here is the entertainment schedule:
4:30 PM - Kyle Ollah
5:30 PM - Ingeborg Von Agassiz
6:30 PM - Jerree Small
7:30 PM - And a special Duluth performance by Low

A portion of the show will include live painting (art) by fellow house painter and friend Dusty Keliin.

There will also be a pizza buffet from 4-6:30 PM donated by Valentini's Vicino Lago, Pizza Lucé, Vintage Italian Pizza, V.I.P, Pizza Man Duluth, Theotherplace, and Do North Pizzeria & Pub, Hermantown.

If you can't be there January 26th you may Donate Today.

Who – Jamie Ness, longtime local musician and self-employed painter.

What – Medical Relief Party

When – Saturday, January 26 from 4:00-8:00 PM

Where – The Rex Bar at Fitger’s

Why - As a result of the fall he has nearly $30,000 in medical and dental bills. He has been unable to paint since the accident and could use our help.

* * * *
Among the donations from local businesses and artists there are hotel stays, A Loll Adirondack Chair, restaurant gift cards, pottery, books by local authors and poets, an array of gift baskets and certificates, and much more.

One more time: https://www.gofundme.com/7zukhb-jamie-fund

DAI Biennial and Annual Member Show This Week... And More.

The Muse (Maureen) by Dale Lucas

There is always something happening here, and though there is no one spot that lists everything that's happening Esther Piszczek's Twin Ports Art blog is always a good place to start and a gift to the community.

While looking for the Twin Ports Art site I found a Pinterest board that features Twin Ports artists and was most surprised to see a couple of my pieces there. Thank you, Tweed Museum of Art. Honored to be considered worthy of such company. Keep adding more to this board. There are simply so many talented artists in this region whose work is worth sharing.

This week I received a notification from the Duluth Art Institute regarding the upcoming Member Show and Biennial Opening Reception this Thursday evening. The 62nd Arrowhead Regional Biennial, which is again displayed in the John Steffl Gallery on the fourth floor landing, is being dedicated to the late John Steffl whom we lost this past year.

The DAI is also dedicating the member show to another regional artist whom we lost very recently. Here is the letter many of us received this past week from Christina Woods:

Art touches everyday life in ways that is both personal and imperfect. January 9, we lost a dear friend in the truest sense of the word, Paul McIntyre. Paul, in his “old sarcastic New Englander- the Johnny Walker wisdom running high” way gave of his time to the arts with deep love. He, himself a photographer, had a down-to-earth inclusive way of seeing the world. “The imperfections are the most beautiful part,” he shared with me once, words that mean even more to me today. You can see that sentiment in Paul’s photography, how he captured the inherent beauty of everyday things, personal and imperfect. Paul’s album is available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/pelrrojo/. It is worth the time to view his work and revel in Paul’s view of the world.

Paul used his sense of humor and wisdom to advocate for the arts by immersing himself in the local art scene and supporting those in our region who are the makers of art. At the DAI, Paul was a regular volunteer, assisting with installs, checking in works of art for the Annual Member Show, and attending events highlighting the talent in the room. We were so pleased he accepted the 2017 DAI volunteer of the year award. We miss his poignant expression of life, wisdom, and his commitment to be present. Join us in saluting Paul’s talent, wisdom and commitment to the art with a well made chocolate chip cookie. His favorite, personal and imperfect.

The opening reception for both the Member Show and the Biennial are this coming Thursday from 5:00 to 8:00. In addition, Vern Northrup's Akinomaage, a photography exhibit, can be found in the Morrison Gallery along with Ray Allard's Jazz Forest in the Corridor Gallery.

Detail from Wendy Rouse's Ely Summer

* * * *

Artist and former Tweed Museum curator Eric Dubnicka is having an Art Exhibition and Garage Sale February 16.  The show is titled, "I'm Selling Most Everything I Own and Moving." Eric has made a rich contribution to the local art scene and will be missed. You can read more about his event Here on Facebook.  Here's my 2018 post about a visit with Eric in which we discussed his new directions, the Tweed and our Twin Ports art scene.

* * * *

QUICK NOTE: Next Saturday there will be a Jamie Ness Medical/Dental Relief Party at The Rex from 4-8 p.m.  I'll be writing more about this later but wanted to get it on your radar. We all fall on our faces once in a while, but in this case Jamie fell on his face from a ladder and had extensive damage as well as medical expenses. There will be music, live painting and $10,000 of silent auction items... and much more. Can't make it but wish to help? Visit the Jamie Ness Go Fund Me site here.

* * * *

And finally, one more image from the Biennial,

Julian Shibata's Daisies

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Engage it.

Boomchucks Drummer Brad Nelson Talks About Life, Music and Duluth Dylan Fest

I met Brad Nelson through our mutual involvement with Duluth Dylan Fest. It's interesting how much we interact with people without really knowing them. I'd known of his former involvement with the Brewhouse, of course, and that he was the younger brother of Tim Nelson, former co-owner of the same (and several other local eating establishments) with Rod Raymond. I knew he was also a drummer with the Boomchucks, who annually changed their name to The Freewheelers to entertain during Duluth Dylan Fest. But when I learned recently about his involvement with the U.S. Olympic Skiing Team, I suddenly felt a desire to share his story, in part that I would myself learn more about this Director of Information & Propaganda and all things publicity for Duluth Does Dylan.

EN: Where did you and Tim grow up and how did you end up in Duluth?
Brad Nelson: We were born in Duluth. My dad is from here and my mom moved here to take a social work position. But we moved to Brainerd when I was six and we grew up there. My dad took a job teaching auto mechanics at the Brainerd Technical College. My parents bought a little farm where we kept a horse, rabbits, chickens, a dog and cat, and several veggie gardens.

EN: Were you both skiers?
BN: Yes, we are both skiers. I decided to join the ski team when I was in 7th grade and talked my brother into doing it with me. The sport ended up changing both of our lives. I still think of it as the most "punk rock" of sports because it's hard as can be, arguably the most physically demanding sport there is, but kids at school used to make fun of us, calling us "forest fairies" and stuff like that. Taking on that challenge made us the opposite of cool. I guess that fit me. 

EN: How did you come to be involved with the Duluth Dylan Fest committee? 

BN: Jamie (Ness), Jim Hall and I played a couple of the early Bob Dylan birthday parties, which were simple gatherings at a brewpub with birthday cake and us playing Dylan covers in the corner. I don't know why, but I approached the organizing committee and asked them for their thoughts about growing the event into a weeklong festival. It was just one of those things where I thought something should happen and seeing the idea come to life was the drive. Everyone on the committee was on board and the rest is history.

EN: You're also a drummer in the Boomchucks, with Jamie Ness. When did you take up drums and how did the Boomchucks get started?
BN: When Tim was in 7th grade and I was in 4th he asked for a drum kit for his birthday. He was gifted a beat up two-piece drum kit that changed our lives. We spent hours in our shared bedroom learning the beats to songs, just playing along. But we also started writing our own songs from the start and called ourselves The Apollo Rockers. We would write songs and put on concerts for our parents, sister, aunts, uncles, pets... anyone that would listen. I still remember some of the songs we wrote. At first Tim usually played the drums and I was the singer. But after a while we started taking turns.

I played the trumpet in the school band. Drums were something I enjoyed because they belonged completely to me. I didn't have to worry about being correct, I could just play. I still think of myself as more of a "musician" than a "drummer," if that makes any sense. I really care more about the song and how to breathe life into it than I do about being a technically great drummer. Of course those things overlap all over the place, but that's how I approach it.

I've known Jamie a long time, I think we met in 1999. We crossed paths musically a couple times early on, even though he was living in Minneapolis and starting to stand out in that scene as a City Pages "Picked to Click" artist. We recorded together for the first time on the first Duluth Does Dylan CD 15 years ago. In 2006, after Jamie had moved back to his hometown (Duluth). We somehow started talking about musical influences and decided we should play together. We sort of had in mind Johnny Cash "Live at Folsom Prison," lots of train beats, almost a punk-rock country sound. The collaboration has been important to me on a lot of levels. Jamie remains one of my most important friends and playing music with him has been a huge part of my life for the past decade.

EN: Who have been the prime movers behind the Duluth Does Dylan CDs?
BN: Tim somehow came up with that idea as a way to document and market the Duluth music scene. Tom Fabjance jumped on board right away and the two worked together on it. That was 2001. They have consistently created a CD every five years since, for a total of four. I wrote the liner notes for the first CD as the publisher of the Ripsaw, Duluth's alt weekly at the time. I helped Tim and Tom more on the latest effort, "Bringing It All Back To Duluth Does Dylan."

Tom has been a huge but quiet influence on Duluth's music community. Few people realize he has a gold record as the engineer for the Smashing Pumpkins "Gish" record. He moved to Ashland to start his family and has since worked for Big Top Chautauqua, Trampled By Turtles, and many more. He's going out on the road with the Manhattan Transfer this winter. We're lucky to have him involved.

Midpoint, BOTT Express, "home" of the Freewheelers.*

EN: Where did the idea for the Blood On The Tracks Express come from?
BN: When the Duluth Dylan Fest was coming up with ideas to extend the festival I stole the idea from previous chartered trains, like the Halloween "Terror Train." Creating a Dylan-themed train seemed like an ideal fit as trains loom large in Americana music—and Dylan's songs are no exception.

EN: Why is Dylan important to you personally?
BN: I was weened on Americana music, it's just incredibly sentimental to me. My dad had an awesome record collection of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and stuff like that. Dylan wasn't played as much but it was around. As I started to grow beyond 80s punk rock and then 90s indie rock and was able to understand Dylan's music better, it occurred to me that he was as punk rock as they come only with less distortion. "Masters of War," for example, is a punch in the face. It just blew me away by how hard it was. But a lot of my Dylan discovery has been through playing his music with Jamie, listening to John Bushey's radio show "Highway 61 Revisited," and being a part of the Duluth Dylan Fest. Of course the more I've delved in the more important his music has become for different reasons at different times, like "Threw It All Away" a couple years back.

Besides being artistically inspiring, Dylan is a legend that was born where I was born, he drank the same water and breathed the same air. It's helpful to remember that everyone comes from somewhere. I hate the term "local musician" because it lowers the bar for the musician and the listener in terms of what's expected, like the audience should prepare to hear mediocrity. I guess Dylan turns the term "local musician" on its head in an inspiring way. I try to bring that mindset to everything I tackle, that it's possible to contribute to what's come before no matter who you are and where you come from.

* * * *
Thanks, Brad. May you stay forever young.

* One evening each year the Boomchucks perform as The Freewheelers during Duluth Dylan Fest.

Local Musician Jamie Ness Is Also Part of Tonight's Show: A Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan

It's Saturday morning and it won't be long. Show starts tonight at seven. Sacred Heart Music Center. A good night to make some memories.

Jamie Ness is one of the local performers who will be part of this extravaganza. His group The Freewheelers has become nearly a fixture on the annual Blood on the Tracks Express each year during Duluth Dylan Fest and this year is no exception.

Here's a brief snapshot of "the other Ness" (and we don't mean Eliot.)

EN: Who is Jamie Ness?

Jamie Ness: A long time local musician.

EN: How did the Boomchucks come into existence? 

JN: The Boomchucks got our start as the Thursday night band at Fitgers Brewhouse for two years. Every year in May we do a show as "The Freewheelers", an all Dylan bar band. Here's a link to our album of Dylan songs. There's a special edition CD of this album for sale at our gigs.

EN: What are some of the other groups you perform with? 

JN: I don't have any other active groups right now.

Jamie Ness and The Freewheelers

EN: How did you first get interested in music? 

JN: I grew up around a lot of good musicians, folk, country, and blues. fingerpicking, people singing together.

EN: How did you come to be involved in A Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan? 

JN: John Bushey asked me to do it.

EN: How has Dylan’s music (and history here) influenced the local music scene?

JN: Hmmmmm, a lot of musicians are interested in Dylan's work. It's a great way to learn about music and life, about our culture and history. It's like a people's history. You could spend years listening to Dylan, or reading his autobiography and looking things up on Wikipedia that you never heard of. Of course a lot of people want to make their own path musically. I think both approaches are great.

EN: Do you have a favorite Dylan album? Who else did you like to listen to?

JN: My favorite Dylan album right now is Nashville Skyline. I also like the recent albums, 1996 to present. We haven't started learning that material yet though.

EN: What advice would you give to up and coming musicians from our region?

JN: My advice for young musicians is "be really good."

* * * * *

EdNote: This blog entry and others like it have the aim of raising awareness for the tonight's Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan concert which will kick off the 2014 North Country Dylan Celebration in Duluth and Hibbing. Sacred Heart Music Center, May 17, 2014. For tickets to this event visit dulutharmory.org/events.

Visit the Salute Facebook page and share with your friends by clicking the Invite button. 

A Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan is a presentation of the Armory Arts and Music Center and Magic Marc Productions.